Rating: C
Dir: Yves Simoneau.
Star: Diane Keaton, Bruce Dern, Rutger Hauer, Paul Guilfoyle.
RIP Keaton. Nobody would ever describe this as the greatest or most memorable entry in her filmography. But, for a TV movie, it certainly has a very strong cast, with a double Oscar nominee in Dern, and the ever-reliable Hauer, in addition to its star. It basically does what it says in the title: tells the story of Amelia Earhart’s last journey in 1937, an attempt to circle the globe. There isn’t much particular drama there: Earhart’s name is basically the poster child for mysterious disappearances, so we know how this is going to end. The film instead concentrates on other angles, such as her relationship with husband George Putnam (Dern), or her vocal support for women’s rights.
Yeah, I’ll confess to rolling my eyes a little at the latter, and the film does bend some elements of the truth to its desires. For example, the reluctance she shows here to engage in commercial promotions is a little at odds with the reality – that these were a major source of finance for her flights. By most accounts, her marriage to Putnam was largely one of convenience too. She wrote to him on their wedding day, “I want you to understand I shall not hold you to any medieval code of faithfulness to me, nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly.” Needless to say, the TV movie decides not to touch that side of things with a ten-foot barge-pole.
Despite getting second billing, Hauer is definitely underused, in his role as Earhart’s alcoholic navigator Fred Noonan. He doesn’t get a lot to do beyond lurk somewhere beyond the heroine’s shoulder, while making notes on charts. Dern gets much more in his role, with Putnam operating simultaneously as Earhart’s husband, publicist, fundraiser and, occasionally, shoulder to cry on. It’s interesting the film chooses to join Earhart’s life years after her most famous exploits, such as being the first woman to make a nonstop transatlantic flight solo. I also wonder about the factual accuracy of Earnhart telling Noonan, just before the fatal final leg, “This is my last flight”. Well, that’s her clearly doomed – and worse still, she subsequently goes on to gaze at a photograph of her husband.
I really did not find much to grab my interest in this. The flying scenes are well enough staged, not least a near-disastrous accident on take-off, during an earlier attempt to circumnavigate the world. There is a certain poignancy to the final flight, with her and Noonan stripping down the plane to the barest of bare essentials to lighten the load. Life-rafts and parachutes? They’re vastly overrated. Knowing how it’s going to end – moistly – does imbue a tragic component to proceedings. I had to suppress an urge to yell “No, turn back!” when Amelia rejected her navigator’s recommendation to turn back, while they still had fuel to do so. It dilutes, yet does not negate the basic banality of what has gone before.